Studying the Company's Innovation Strategy Through the Immune System

You may have heard of Aldous Huxley's popular novel entitled "Brave New World", along with the inspiration from "Brave molecular world" within you. In times of pandemic, the immune system is facing challenges. Many businesses also have to go through stressful times. We believe in a brave molecular world, where the immune system survives. against germs, then inspire innovation during difficult times as follows.

In everyday life, scientists estimate that the number of germs has exceeded the number of cells of our immune system. Rough calculation, 1 defense cell may have to face 10-100 germs. However, as long as we feel healthy, without being bothered by the molecular battles going on in our bodies. While germs are always trying to sneak in, our immune system is on high alert, anticipating suspicious creatures and activity.

There are two kinds of immune system in humans: innate and adaptive. Built-in system soldiers collaborate and support adaptive army learning. When a germ invades, our innate system army, one of which is called a phagocyte, will go after the germ. (Don't worry, he doesn't have eyeballs). Then, the "hand-to-hand combat" begins. Using their pseudo-arms, our phagocytes will pick up and shoot various toxic chemicals to kill these germs. Along the way, your company will face many unexpected challenges, including threatening competition. If you like this modus operandi of phagocytes in dealing with bad germs, companies should be able to prepare responsive strategies to defend their territory.

Furthermore, our defense soldiers carefully scrape off the germs. Then transport the rest and pass these findings on to the members adaptive immune system - B cells and T cells, for further study. However, if the phagocytic army is overwhelmed by a more formidable colony, other soldiers will immediately come to help. Have you ever had inflammation? This is a time when your small army recruits reservists, buying time for the adaptive system soldiers to study the colony and then devise an optimal response. So, while facing ongoing challenges, companies need a way to systematically and continually learn from failures and successes. Companies also need to find ways to “buy time” when they need to step back, assess the situation, and strategize.

Our defense system is always learning new things. This "learning" takes place in our lymph nodes. You can think of them as "warrooms," where armies of the adaptive immune system — such as B cells and T cells — learn, innovate, and strategize together to mount the best response attacks. For example, T cells, they learn to distinguish invaders from our cells and proteins so they don't make mistakes on the battlefield, whereas B cells are always toying with different forms of antibodies. Since the only thing that is certain is uncertainty, companies need to tinker with the products and services they offer from time to time. In this way, when an unexpected situation occurs, they are able to increase their initial response and become adaptive. So, in the absence of a threat, they learn and practice. And in the face of attack, they continued to learn from what other soldiers reported from the battlefield. In other words, they were always on high alert during normal circumstances and times of war.

B-cells have many combinations through mutations at work or not, ready in their arms. They are there to be on the lookout for any tiny germs, which might suddenly attack. If you look at the learning process, it may seem redundant and expensive. Of course, some antibodies work while some don't. But if you think about it, it's all part of a successful innovation system. Whenever there is a new invader, the defense system can responsively defend with an early version of the adaptive antibody. In the "war room", T cells continue to learn and adapt based on the success and failure of the initial antibody release to produce a more specific and powerful attack against the invader.

Not only humble learners, but T cells are also good at communication and planning. After learning from the battlefield, T cells send cytokines to most B-cells. You can think of these signals as WhatsApp instructions that determine exactly what type of antibody B-cell is needed to start the creation process. Furthermore, these specific and optimal antibodies will be memorized by memory T cells, so that future responses to the same pathogen will be faster.

T-cells were an elite type of army that also carried out inspections on the battlefield. Sometimes sneaky germs hide in the cells. Sometimes these germs dress up and trick our phagocytes into thinking they are friends. Thus, the phagocytes will not chase and cut it. But T-cells can see the schemes of bad germs. Say, a virus disguises itself and sets up a viral store inside a host cell. Because they are hidden, long-term antibodies cannot reach these invaders. T cells can tell. Then it will come to the infected cell and have a "short-range battle" to take down these invaders.

In the end, T cells, are soldiers capable of making tough decisions at critical times. During short-range combat, if a cell becomes infected, the T cell will kill it in hopes of destroying all enemies in the hijacked cell and preventing further damage. If you've had influenza, the fact that you're recovering means that your T cells have fought this short-range battle and made the tough decisions for you.

We hope that this operation will not only expose you to extraordinary molecular army competitions, but also to inspire you learn, innovate and work together like them. Just as the number of germs outnumbers soldiers with immune systems, the challenges will always seem overwhelming. However, those immune cells never run away. So don't be afraid. Fearless, cooperative and innovative, they are entwined in our DNA.

- This article is a guest article written by Grace Goddess. He is a Chemical Biologist & a Fulbright Presidential Ph.D. in Business Strategy.